To charge a smart­phone in today’s vehi­cles, a con­sumer must use a cord to draw energy from either a USB port or by a phone charger. But for those future vehi­cles equipped with a Pow­er­mat elec­tro­mag­netic charg­ing mat, a con­sumer needs only to place their cell­phone on the sur­face to charge.

Phones — and other elec­tronic devices — must be capa­ble of wire­less recharg­ing. Con­sumer can also buy cell­phone cases that allow for wire­less recharging.

Other major com­pa­nies from other indus­tries, such as Star­bucks, Dura­cell and AT&T, have already adopted Powermat’s wire­less charg­ing platform.

Con­sult­ing and data firm IHS Inc. projects that global ship­ments of wire­less charg­ing devices will rise to almost 100 mil­lion by 2015 com­pared to 5 mil­lion units last year.

Wire­less smart­phone charg­ing is the lat­est in a series of in-car upgrades that automak­ers have added or plan to add to bet­ter con­nect con­sumers with devices gen­er­ally used out­side vehi­cles. Other exam­ples include touch­screens and voice-activated sys­tems that allow dri­vers to use their cell­phones with­out tak­ing their hands off the steer­ing wheel.